AUTONOMY HIRED TO PRODUCE 2015 CENTENNIAL

The city of San Diego has hired the Los Angeles-based production firm Autonomy to produce the 2015 Centennial of the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park.

The company’s credits range from working with Heineken to produce a show for the UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour in Guadalajara to collaborating with Corazon (Mexico’s largest independent TV production company) in several projects, including a series for MTV Tr3 being shot in Los Angeles.

The firm also produced the 2010 Mexico Bicentennial Celebration in Mexico City.

Autonomy’s partners — Adam Burke and Phil Green — have been meeting with San Diego cultural, civic and community groups since being awarded the contract in January. They expect to have a framework in place by April, approach potential partners, funders and sponsors with specific programs and proposals throughout the summer and have the event mapped out by the end of 2013.

“Right now, it’s organizing, organizing, organizing,” Burke said in an interview at the Museum of Man in Balboa Park on Wednesday. “There are so many ideas, so many concepts, and lots of people who need to have input, want to have input, should have input. We’re just in the process of getting on the same page.”

Already, however, Burke and Green have developed a preliminary framework for the 2015 Centennial Celebration, now branded as “EDGE2015.” It has four distinct components:

• “Seasonal spectaculars” — Four mega events, each at a different site throughout the city. “Those are the moments that place the Centennial on the national and world stage,” Green said. “They draw eyes to San Diego.” Burke envisions them on the scale of a “Fourth of July celebration” or an “Olympic opening ceremony.”

• Park “programming zones” — Three areas in Balboa Park that would be focused on the themes of innovation, internationalism and recreation (including restaurants and the beverage industry).

• Park-wide programming — Family-oriented events occurring throughout the park. They also hope to erect a special “centennial stage” that could be used for visiting performers and special presentations.

• Citywide programming — Events throughout the city that draw attention to the centennial.

“One of the things we’ve talked to the directors of the museums about is having a bit of a sense of showmanship in this year,” Green said. “So if there’s a major unveiling of a new exhibit, perhaps we tour it throughout the streets of San Diego in the same way they did with the space shuttle (now at the California Science Center) and the giant boulder (now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

“We want to create these things that keep everybody aware of the centennial year and thinking about Balboa Park.”

A city spokesman declined to provide details on how much the city is paying Autonomy and said it is in the process of “developing a broad contract” with Burke and Green. Technically, they are working for Balboa Park Celebration Inc., the nonprofit entity set up for the 2015 Celebration and funded largely by the city.

The head of that organization, Mike McDowell, stepped down on Monday to return to his former lodging industry position. A search for his replacement is now under way.

Burke and Green acknowledged that the clock is ticking. Outside of the specific exhibitions planned by the individual institutions, the 2015 Centennial Celebration remains vague. But that’s their job, to transform those fuzzy hopes, dreams, long-discussed plans and concepts into something concrete.

“We don’t have time to mess around,” Burke said. “But we’re on target to get it done.”